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Kōshohei transforming a rock into a sheep
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kyōto prefecture › Kyoto (possible place of creation)
- Date
- 1846 - 1873
- Artist/maker
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Hishida Nittō (1817 - 1873) (artist)Maruyama-Shijō School (active late 18th century - late 19th century)
- Material and technique
- ink and light colour on silk
- Dimensions
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mount 55.5 x 40.5 cm (height x width)
painting 29.3 x 18 cm (height x width)
- Material index
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organic › animal › animal product › silk
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Purchased with the assistance of the Friends of the Ashmolean, and Mr and Mrs J. Hillier, 1973.
- Accession no.
- EA1973.89
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Further reading
Katz, Janice, Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with an introductory essay by Oliver Impey (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2003), no. 33 on p. 124, p. 84, illus. p. 125
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Japanese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum
Nittō has chosen to illustrate the story of Kōshohei by depicting a very young shepherd boy. We see the moment of the Daoist legend when Kōshohei transforms white rocks in a field into sheep, as in the fan painting by Kunii Ōbun included earlier in this catalogue [see EA1973.90 & EA1973.91]. Here the artist shows one rock beginning to take on certain features of a sheep such as eyes and legs. A fully formed sheep that has just sprung to life is also drawn, and perhaps the two are meant to depict sequential stages of the transformation of the same rock.
The shepherd boy is a sweet, plump figure who is gently directing the sheep towards the mountain. The image is painted with a very light touch and delicate lines which adds to the sense of sentimentality. It seems not only the sheep, but the boy who needs to be directed as well.
Hishida Nittō was a little-known artist of the Shijō school active in Kyoto. He studied with Nakajima Raishō (1796-1871) and Tanaka Nikka (d. 1845). From Nikka, Nittō took the first character of his name as well as the gō of Kyūhōdō, which is how he signs name here. His painting style is also very much in keeping with the manner of his teacher Tanaka Nikka.
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